How I'm Spending My Summer -- Vacation?

Summer and reading seem to go together like, well, summer and reading. Things slow a bit, a lot of us head for vacations, there’s a bit more time for doing something besides demonstrating that the entire population has ADHD.

So we read.

Currently, I’m reading a novel called Fatfingers by Charlie White. It’s not what I usually read – it’s a historical novel. The catch for me? It’s “a tale of old New Orleans” and about the Acadians (Cajuns) coming to Louisiana. Like some of my forebears did. I'm already convinced that the characters in the novel are some of my forebears.

Also on tap:

Al Weiwei’s Blog. If you don’t know who Al Weiwei is, he’s an artist imprisoned by the Chinese government because he believes a little too much in freedom. You can find more information about him on Wikipedia. This book is the collection of his blog postings before it was taken down by Chinese authorities.

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. I hear every poet is supposed to read this. I wonder if anyone’s written Letters to a Middle-Aged Poet, soon to be an Old Poet.

Delicate Machinery Suspended: Poems by Anne Overstreet. It's so brand new it's not even available yet on Amazon. I'm reading an advance reader copy, and if you like poetry, you will like this volume.

The Jesus Prayer by Frederica Matthewes-Green. It’s an entire book about a very short prayer, and it looks wonderful.

Longing for Home by Frederick Buechner. First published in 1996, it's by one of my favorite writers.

Destiny and Desire by Carlos Fuentes. This writer has written so many wonderful novels over the last 50 years you have to wonder where the Nobel Prize Committee’s head is (although they did give the literature prize to Mario Vargas Llosa last year, about 20 years overdue).

Gravestone by Travis Thrasher. The second in his Solitary Tales YA series. (My first read on Kindle!)

The Falling Away by T.L. Hines. One of the best speculative writers out there, who also happens to be a Christian (he does not write “Christian” novels), Hines writes edgy, provocative novels that turn your head inside out.

And I’ve decided I will read something I haven’t read since 9th grade – Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

If you like to see some other recommendations, check out the list posted by Marcus Goodyear at The High Calling.

What are you reading this summer?